San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly's Speech At the Completion of 500 Mile SOS RescueWalk from Los Angeles to San Francisco

October 20^th, 2001

Thank you very much.

My name is Chris Daly. I am a supervisor here in San Francisco, and I had the honor to welcome the marchers who have come in to San Francisco from Seattle several weeks ago; and again it is my honor to welcome the marchers who came from Los Angeles. It's my understanding that you've been out on the road for over a month, telling the truth about what's happening in China, what's happening to tens of millions of people who practice such a non-violent and peaceful activity, the practitioners of Falun Gong.

While on the road, you have probably heard that we have been trying here, in San Francisco to speak out on behalf of the people being persecuted in China--the Falun Gong practitioners who are in being persecuted by the Chinese government. And we have met with some difficulties here in SF from the Chinese consulate, and people loyal to the Chinese government. Here in San Francisco, it has not been the same type of resistance that our friends in China have been met with; however it has been a campaign of misinformation and telling lies, and trying to prevent good people from telling the truth of what's happening across the sea.

And unfortunately we took a small loss at the SF board of supervisors last week on an 8 to 3 vote against condemning the Chinese government.

However, the folks who came in from Los Angeles, the folks who walked, who did the march from Seattle, I am sure you can tell, everyone better than me, that the road to justice has some obstacles, the road to justice is not an easy one and that the road is not always paved. So my take of what happened in SF this past week is that it's only an obstacle, and that the truth is the persecution in China must end, and that only people in good conscience can come together to end this. And that is what you are doing: you are organizing, you are telling the truth, you are telling the truth with compassion, and I thank you for doing that. Keep doing that. I will work with you, and I will stand with you, as long as it takes to end this persecution, and we can stop this, and get peace and justice for everyone, for every Falun Gong practitioner, and make this world a better place. Thank you very much. .